Derivatization Enhances LC-IM-MS of 11-Oxosteroids

Steroids are hormones that play a role in everything from growth and metabolism to puberty and disease. Doctors have long measured them using immunoassays, but these tests often are not sensitive or specific enough, so laboratories have increasingly turned to liquid chromatography paired with mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Even so, steroids remain hard to analyze. Many look almost identical, differing only in where a small chemical group sits or which way it points, and many do not carry an electric charge, which makes them hard for a mass spectrometer to detect.